Geethanjali (1989 film)

Plot

Prakash. (Akkineni Nagarjuna), a carefree, mischievous student graduates from College. During his celebration with his friends, he gets into a road accident. Although the accident is only minor, during medical tests, he is diagnosed with terminal cancer and has few months to live. Unable to hear his mother's constant wailing, he packs his bags and leaves to his family's vacation home in Ooty.

There he meets Geetanjali (Girija Shettar), who enjoys playing pranks on people around her. In one incident, Geetanjali asks a guy to meet her near a church after sundown to elope with her. When he comes to meet her, she along with her sisters and friends plays an elaborate prank by dressing up as ghosts to scare him away. When she tries to pull the same prank on Prakash, who is already aware of this, it backfires as he pulls a bigger prank on her by dressing himself as a vampire and along with aerial wire stunts, scares her.

After being unsuccessful in scaring Prakash away, Geetanjali forms another plan in which she complains to her grandmother that Prakash had asked her (Geetanjali) to elope with him. Furious at this knowledge, Geetanjali's grandmother confronts Prakash about it. Though Prakash tries his best to explain the truth, Geetanjali's grandmother chides him and humiliates him in public. Prakash becomes angry and retaliates by driving Geetanjali to a hillside area and leaving her there. Later that night, Geetanjali's youngest sister comes to Prakash and tells him that Geetanjali has still not returned home and they are getting worried about her. Prakash goes out to look for her and upon finding her shivering in cold, brings her back to her family. Geetanjali's grandmother scolds Prakash for pulling such a stunt on Geetanjali as such things could have worsened her health condition. Curious at this, Prakash inquires about her health. To his dismay, he finds out that she has a terminal illness. This intrigues him as she is always happy and energetic. Geetanjali tells him that she's not worried about her impending death as everyone who lives in this world will be gone someday. She also tells him that she's not bothered about what happens in the future and she only lives for today. This teaches Prakash to take his own impending death in his stride and live life to the fullest.

Prakash begins to fall in love with Geetanjali and pursues her. Thinking that this is also a part of his mischief, Geetanjali keeps putting him off. But one thing leads to another and soon, she too reciprocates his love. One day, Prakash's mother comes to visit him and finds out about her son's love. Not knowing that Prakash has been keeping his illness a secret from Geetanjali, his mother blurts out the truth to Geetanjali. She becomes heart-broken knowing that Prakash's condition is worse than her own. She confronts Prakash and tells him to leave her. Prakash reminds Geetanjali that everyone dies one day and so will he. He tells her that his death is no exception. But a devastated Geetanjali admits that his own life is more important to her than her own and she would not be able to see his death. She begs him to leave her and tells him that she doesn't want to see him again. That night, Geetanjali's health worsens and she is admitted in the hospital. After getting the news, Prakash rushes to the hospital to meet her but Geetanjali's father, who happens to be a doctor, requests him to leave since Geetanjali wishes the same. Prakash becomes sad and decides to leave the town. At the same time, Geetanjali undergoes an operation for her heart. Hours after her operation, Geetanjali slowly opens her eyes. Her whole family rejoices at her recovery. Geetanjali looks at her father and tells him that she wants to meet Prakash. The family finds out that he is planning to leave the town and rush Geetanjali to the railway station. Prakash sees Geetanjali and turns back to run to her and hold her hand which she outstretches. The movie ends as Geetanjali and Prakash reunite and kiss.

Cast and crew

Production

Fascinated by the script and box office performance of Mouna Raagam (1986), Nagarjuna was keen on featuring in a film directed by Mani Ratnam. Nagarjuna revealed that he used to wait outside Mani Ratnam's house every morning when the director would go on his daily walk in order to exchange conversation. After a month of regularly attempting to run into the director, Nagarjuna requested Mani Ratnam to direct a Telugu film with him in the lead role, which the director agreed to after initial reluctance. It was also the only Telugu film directed by Ratnam. Girija's voice was dubbed by Rohini during post-production.

Filming started on 12 October 1988 and was completed in sixty days. Most of the scenes were shot in Ooty and a few shots were filmed in Madras. The film was unofficially remade in Hindi as Yaad Rakhegi Duniya starring Aditya Pancholi, Rukhsar and Vikram Gokhale.

Soundtrack

The film's music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja to lyrics penned by Veturi Sundararama Murthy. All the songs turned out to be blockbusters when the music was released by Echo Audio Company.

Songs in the Tamil version

In the Tamil version, titled Idhayaththai Thirudaathe, all songs were composed by Ilaiyaraaja, and lyrics were written by Vaali.

Awards

Legacy

Nagarjuna became the heart-throb of Andhra after this movie. Immense following of girls and ladies began for Nagarjuna. Geethanjali was released five months prior to another trend-setter movie Siva of Nagarjuna. These two movies helped Nagarjuna to gain both class and mass audience and were the stepping stones for many more blockbuster later in his career. Ratnam also gained a huge following in Andhra Pradesh with this film.